GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — They're called "social zones" and starting Friday, June 19 -- they're going to be popping up all over Grand Rapids.
The project is a partnership between the City of Grand Rapids and Downtown Grand Rapids, Inc., and the goal is to help businesses negatively impacted by the pandemic to bounce back.
Earlier this month, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer lifted restrictions on restaurants and bars, allowing them to reopen but only while operating at a limited capacity to be able to adhere to social distancing guidelines. For some places, opening at a limited capacity is not enough to keep up with operating costs. This is where the city's social zones will come into play.
There are four zones going up all over downtown: Monroe North, Bridge Street, Center City and Heartside.
In those areas, outside seating and gathering areas will be installed on the sidewalks and in the streets -- then nearby businesses will have access to them for their customers.
Social zones are not a new concept. Ohio has implemented similar districts in Cleveland and Toledo, and similar ideas include Beale Street in Memphis and Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
Grand Rapids' social zone project is completely funded by Downtown Grand Rapids, Inc. and any local businesses can use the areas -- free of charge.
At 6:30 a.m. on Friday, crews will begin installing the social zones, starting at Monroe North.
There will be road closures in the area of Monroe and Pearl -- so drivers in that area will want to give themselves extra time to commute.
The following street segments are expected to be detoured between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Friday while crews put up concrete barriers:
- Bridge Street NW, Summer to Winter – once the deployment is completed, 2-way traffic will be restored for the duration of the social zone but shifted north so that westbound traffic is in the north parking lane and east-bound traffic is in the formerly westbound lane. This will allow for an expanded seating zone on the south side of Bridge that includes about 40% of the roadway.
- Monroe Center St. NW, Ionia to Division – once the deployment is completed, 1 lane of traffic (left lane) will be restored for the duration of the social zone on this block. (The rest of Monroe Center (Monroe to Ionia) will be closed for the duration of the social zone with cross-traffic continuing on Ottawa and Ionia.)
- Ionia Ave. SW, Oakes to Fulton – once the deployment is completed, 1-way north-bound traffic (no south-bound) will be restored for the duration of the social zone on these blocks. That traffic will flow in the left (formerly south-bound) lane from Oakes to Weston and shift to the right lane from Weston to Fulton. This has been coordinated with The Rapid.
- Monroe Ave. NW (northbound detour only), Trowbridge to Bond to Newberry – once deployment is completed, normal traffic flow will be restored, since the expanded seating areas will be limited to on-street parking places.
Other, smaller traffic impacts are possible in other locations due to small-scale deployments.
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